This week’s top five Oculus releases incorporate a little of everything, from cooperative heists to alien agriculture. There’s also plenty on offer for mobile VR users – no Rift required.

Slime Rancher: VR Playground

from Monopark

Slime Rancher: VR Playground – screenshot courtesy Steam

We loved the original version of this game – so much that we named it 2017’s Game of the Year on our sister site – so of course we’re beyond excited about the VR version.

A cute farming simulator inspired by classic JRPGs that – at least for us – can turn into an unsettling metaphor for industrial agriculture surprisingly quickly, Slime Rancher is fascinating and addicting.

Its simple “suck and blow” mechanic (using a vacuum tool) is easy to pick up and belies the complexities at play beneath the surface as herds of slimes eat, breed and mutate.

A big part of the fun is exploration the wilderness around your ranch, and Slime Rancher: VR is a stand-alone experience letting you explore three of its environments. While it doesn’t include a full implementation of the entire game, there’s plenty to suck and blow, and the focus seems to be more on the relaxing and exploring elements than the factory farming bit, which is fine with us.

Crow: The Legend

from Baobab Studios

Crow: The Legend – screenshot courtesy Oculus

Directed by Eric Darnell (best known for Madagascar), this week’s most hyped VR release is an animated retelling of a Native American legend and featuring the voice of Oprah Winfrey, John Legend and Constance Wu, among others and was featured at Cannes.

Covert

from White Elk

Covert – screenshot courtesy Oculus

A clever two-person cooperative concept based on heist movies, Covert makes good use of an asymmetric dynamic in a similar vein as Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. The VR player is the thief, physically breaking in to highly guarded locations, while a non-VR player acts as the hacker, breaking into the security systems to assist the thief in getting away with the goods.

Crawl acrobatically through laser grids like Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment! Hack like the hackers in Hackers! Live out other film-based fantasies, maybe even from movies that came out past the 1990s!

Voxel Fly

from Cenek Strichel

Voxel Fly – screenshot courtesy Oculus

We’re suckers for well-made, old-fashioned shoot-’em-ups, and Voxel Fly combines the entomological science fiction aesthetic of classics like Space Invaders and Yars’ Revenge with a voxel-based, blocky approach to graphics that’s one part Zaxxon and two parts Zenzizenzic.

Honestly, you had us at “space bugs,” but multiple game modes and different ships to select – from classic space fighters to blimps – just add to the fun.

Voronium – Locus Sols

from Gamalocus Studios

Voronium – Locust Sols – screenshot courtesy Steam

We’re also suckers for well-made tower defense games, in or out of VR, and Voronium – Locus Sols definitely delivers on that front. Combining tower defense and FPS mechanics with a science fiction narrative, this is a solid blend of strategy and action.

Another two-week list, our top Oculus releases from mid-July include a variety of games for all platforms, from innovative horror games to whimsical puzzles.

GNOG

from KO_OP

GNOG – screenshot courtesy Oculus

Originally released on mobile platforms but now optimized for VR, GNOG is a whimsical and award-winning puzzle game inspired by real-world toy designs.

Combining the surreal playfulness of games like Machinarium – each of its nine levels involves solving puzzles within a giant toy head – with an art style that evokes Loot Rascals as well as contemporary design brands like GAMAGO, this release is tactile enough to feel “real” but so kooky that virtual space is its perfect delivery mechanism.

Stifled

from Gattai Games

Stifled – screenshot courtesy Steam

Winning multiple awards at game shows in Asia, Stifled is a stealth horror game that relies on a fairly unique echolocation mechanic: in order to discover your surroundings, you need to make sound using your microphone. The more noise you make, though, the more you broadcast your location to unseen horrors stalking you in the darkness…

This is a cross-platform game that doesn’t have to be played in VR, but the extra immersion makes things all the more terrifying.

NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism

from Hyphen-Labs

NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism – screenshot courtesy Oculus

An interactive film combining cyberpunk science fiction with commentary on the African-American experience – and in particular the connection between hair and identity – NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism has been featured at the likes of the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW and the Tribeca Film Festival.

It’s also free on all Oculus platforms, so even if you don’t have an immediate personal connection to the subject matter, there’s no excuse not to check this out.

Order Up

If you’re a fan of the frantic multi-tasking of restaurant simulators and cooking games, Order Up should tickle your taste buds, so to speak.

Adding to the stress of getting your meals put together right and keeping your diners happy, this designed for room scale, so make sure to put on your hairnet – all that running around will have you sweating.

What with the massive summer sales on Steam and Oculus alike, it was actually a slow couple of weeks for new releases. That said, we’ve got plenty of interesting new Oculus releases to amuse you and help you celebrate the summer:

Camp Grizzly

from Blacksmith Studios

Camp Grizzly – screenshot courtesy Steam

What’s summer without camping? In this darkly comedic game from Blacksmith Studios, play a counselor charged with protecting four young campers from a roaming grizzly bear.

Requiring quick reflexes – players must keep the campers entertained while also keeping the campfire fed with firewood – Camp Grizzly is an entertaining new take on the frantic multi-tasking and time management genre with a unique setting perfect for those of us who like the idea of camping more than the reality of sleeping on the ground.

Rise of Insanity – Episode II

from Red Limb Studio

Rise of Insanity – Episode II – screenshot courtesy Oculus

The second episode in this ongoing series once again stands out not only for its unsettling imagery, but its perfectly immersive 1970s setting. Rise of Insanity continues to stand out as one of the best horror games in mobile VR.

Remembering

from Monobanda

Remembering – screenshot courtesy Oculus

A meditative journey with abstract washes of color, sound and imagery, Remembering is the kind of artistic experience VR excels in providing, as well as an experiment by its creators in the way sound affects bodily perception.